When Violet goes to stay with her artist father over the summer, she never expects to be embroiled in a hunt for a missing priceless sketch by Vincent Van Gough. The sketches are stolen from her father’s client and are held ransom for a painting that hasn’t been seen in decades and until they find it, all their lives are in danger. With her friend Reika, Violet search for the missing van Gough takes her from Seattle to the streets of Tokyo to the beautiful Kyoto. As the mystery deepens and the danger heightens, Violet isn’t sure who to trust – all she knows is she has to find the painting and the criminals before it’s too late.
I loved the whodunit aspect of Tokyo Heist. While “heist” may be in the title, the story really follows the aftermath of the original heist as Violet tries to figure out what happened. There’s a lot of people who seem as if they are hiding something and then there’s the involvement of the Japanese mafia and who could possible know or want to work with them.
Violet is an interesting character. She loves art and Japanese culture but her love of manga and use of Japanese words in her everyday lexicon makes it seem like she’s fetishizing the Japanese culture. It’s a bit awkward, especially at the beginning as Violet feels like she knows everything about Japan but when she arrives in Tokyo it’s a shock to her. It was quite nice to show that while Violet definitely had an interest in Japan and manga, she didn’t really know as much as she thought she did. (more…)
